Attorney general asks if Kemi Badenoch would object to Jewish public prayer
Richard Hermer, the attorney general, has challenged Kemi Badenoch to say whether she would object to Jewish prayer in public, after the Conservative leader backed one of her shadow ministers who said an Islamic prayer event was intimidating and un-British.Hermer, one of the UK’s most prominent Jewish politicians, said Badenoch’s decision to support the views of Nick Timothy, the shadow justice secretary, put her on a par with Reform UK and Tommy Robinson, the far-right activist.After an event to mark Ramadan took place on Monday evening in London’s Trafalgar Square, Timothy posted images of mass prayers taking place, saying such an action in a public space was “an act of domination” and “straight from the Islamist playbook”.Asked about her support for Timothy on Thursday, Badenoch said any public expressions of religion should “fit within the norms of a British culture”, and criticised the way men and women were separated for the Ramadan prayers, with men nearer the stage and women farther behind.Hermer told the Guardian Badenoch needed to clarify her view.
“Nick Timothy has said mass prayer in public places is an act of ‘domination’,” he said,“But when he and Kemi Badenoch were questioned about his appalling views, they seemed to only have an issue with Muslim events,“Timothy and Badenoch’s comments beg the question – would they have a problem if I as a Jewish man, were praying in public? Or is it just Muslim prayer they find offensive, and contrary to ‘British values’?“The Conservative party, like Reform and Tommy Robinson, is seeking to divide Britain,Instead, they should be celebrating our brilliantly welcoming and diverse country,”Despite heavy criticism, Timothy has stuck by his views, using an article in the Daily Telegraph to say that Islamic prayer was a repudiation of other faiths, and that this amounted to a “challenge” to Christianity and a call to replace it.
Asked after a speech whether she agreed with Timothy about Islam in particular being an issue, or with arguments from other Conservatives that the main worry was prayers being separated for women and men, Badenoch replied: “They are both correct,”When a Conservative official was asked to clarify whether Badenoch was worried about any prayer being separated by gender, or if her concern was more specifically about Islam, the Guardian was pointed to this answer,Badenoch said she was “very uncomfortable with seeing women pushed to the back, in the middle of Trafalgar Square”,She added: “We need to make sure that the religious expression is in conformity with our values, our norms, our beliefs,And sometimes that does mean saying: actually, no, that’s probably too much.
”The event, branded as Open Iftar, has taken place on Trafalgar Square for the past six years, and was attended on Monday by the London mayor, Sadiq Khan,It was the last of 18 such events this year, with others held at the National Gallery, the Tottenham Hotspur stadium and at Silverstone racing circuit in Northamptonshire,Photographs posted by the organisers appeared to show no separation beyond the prayers, with women and men pictured together for the rest of the event,In his Telegraph article, Timothy said the Trafalgar Square event should be banned, writing: “A memorial to national independence, Trafalgar Square belongs to us all,To use it as a stage for this act of domination and division is completely wrong, and it should never be allowed to happen again.
”Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, indicated that he backed this idea, calling the Trafalgar Square event an “attempt to overtake, intimidate and dominate our way of life”,
‘Huge build-up of risk’: London’s centuries-old shipping industry wrestles with Iran war
Shipping risk has been insured by Lloyd’s of London for more than 330 years, but now the centuries-old heart of maritime insurance is getting to grips with the most modern of threats – drones and missiles threatening hundreds of vessels stuck in the Gulf region amid the escalating Middle East conflict.For nearly three weeks the crucial strait of Hormuz has effectively been closed to the more than 100 gas and oil tankers and container ships that usually pass through each day.Pressure is building to find a way to safely reopen the narrow maritime channel to allow the estimated 1,000 vessels and their crews – mainly oil and gas tankers but also container ships – currently trapped in the Gulf to continue their journeys, restarting the global flow of fuel, chemicals and goods.A total of 23 vessels had been attacked between the start of the war and Thursday, according to analysts from Lloyd’s List Intelligence, including near misses and those that have sustained minor damage. Several crew members have been killed
JP Morgan Chase to use computer estimates to monitor hours worked by junior bankers
JP Morgan Chase has started to compare the hours junior investment bankers claim to have worked against logs on its IT system.The US bank said it would begin issuing reports to junior bankers that compare computer-generated estimates of their work weeks against their self-reported time sheets as part of a pilot scheme.The company said it planned to roll out the programme more widely across its investment bank, with IT estimates based on employees’ weekly digital activities including video calls, desktop keystrokes and scheduled meetings.“Much like the weekly screen time summaries on a smartphone, this tool is about awareness, not enforcement,” JP Morgan said in a statement. “It’s designed to support transparency, wellbeing, and encourage open conversations about workload
Essex police pause facial recognition camera use after study finds racial bias
Essex police have paused the use of live facial recognition (LFR) technology after a study found cameras were significantly more likely to target black people than people of other ethnicities.The move to suspend use of the AI-enabled systems was revealed by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which regulates the use of the technology deployed so far by at least 13 police forces in London, south and north Wales, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Hampshire, Bedfordshire, Suffolk, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Surrey and Sussex.The ICO said Essex police had paused LFR deployments “after identifying potential accuracy and bias risks” and warned other forces to have mitigations in place. LFR systems are either mounted to fixed locations or deployed in vans. In January, the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, announced the number of LFR vans would increase five-fold, with 50 available to every police force in England and Wales
Meta AI agent’s instruction causes large sensitive data leak to employees
An AI agent instructed an engineer to take actions that exposed a large amount of Meta’s sensitive data to some of its employees, in the latest example of AI causing upheaval in a large tech company.The leak, which Meta confirmed, happened when an employee asked for guidance on an engineering problem on an internal forum. An AI agent responded with a solution, which the employee implemented – causing a large amount of sensitive user and company data to be exposed to its engineers for two hours.“No user data was mishandled,” a Meta spokesperson said, and they emphasised that a human could also give erroneous advice. The incident, first reported by The Information, triggered a major internal security alert inside Meta, which the company has said is an indication of how seriously it takes data protection
‘They call me Grandpa Joe’: coach Schmidt in a hurry as clock ticks down on Wallabies reign
Joe Schmidt was in Melbourne’s west coaching Footscray RFC’s under-18s on Monday night, then conducting a 20-minute Q&A that ran to two hours. The next day he called together the Wallabies leaders and challenged them to set the standards at their Super Rugby clubs. By Wednesday he was deep in meetings with Queensland Reds boss Les Kiss, the coach who will take over the national side in July.Schmidt is just off another call with Kiss when he arrives to speak with Guardian Australia, biceps bulging after a workout and eyes gleaming ahead of another day spent dragging the Wallabies back to respectability and priming them for the 2027 World Cup on home soil.This relentless work ethic runs contrary to the title his grandchildren have given him
NYU’s historic 91-game unbeaten streak snapped by Scranton in Final Four
New York University’s historic 91-game winning streak is over after a 60-52 loss to Scranton in the Final Four of the Division III NCAA Tournament on Thursday night, ending one of the longest unbeaten runs in college basketball history.The Violets (29-1) had the second-longest winning streak in NCAA history, trailing only UConn’s 111-game run between 2014 and 2017, and were seeking a third consecutive national championship. Instead, Scranton (32-0) advanced to the title game, holding off a late NYU rally.NYU’s last defeat had come on 11 March 2023, when they were beaten by Transylvania in the Elite Eight. In the three years since, the Violets had not lost, building a dominant program under head coach Meg Barber
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